U.S. stock-index futures were little changed today as investors waited for a speech from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points to 18,268, while those for the S&P 500 index eased 0.5 point to 2,127.50. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index rose 2.5 points to 4,531.25.
Fed chief Yellen will give a speech on the economic outlook to the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce at 1 p.m. She is expected to acknowledge the recent economic sluggishness, including near stagnant performance in the first few months of the year.
The stock market will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day.
DATA:
U.S. consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in April, the Labor Department said today. The core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, jumped 0.3 percent, driven by another increase in housing expenses and also a gain in medical care costs. This is the fastest rate of core prices since January 2013. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected both the overall CPI and the core rate to increase by 0.1 percent.
MOVERS:
Deere & Co. (NYSE:DE) rose 3.4 percent to $89.46 in early trading after raising its 2015 profit forecast.
Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO) slumped 15 percent in premarket trading after the teen apparel retailer estimated a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.
ELong (NASDAQ:LONG) soared 34.4 percent after Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) said it sold its entire stake in the Chinese online travel company to rival Ctrip.com (NASDAQ:CTRP) and others. Ctrip was up 4.9 percent at $75.50.
Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) was up 2.8 percent at $64.00 and Deere & Co rose 1.8 percent to $91.05 after the companies posted better-than-expected quarterly profits.
BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) rose 2.9 percent to $10.27 on the smartphone maker's plans to buy back stock.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) rose 1 percent after the technology company reported adjusted quarterly profit of $0.87 per share, $0.02 above estimates.
Gap (NYSE:GPS), an apparel retailer, matched Street estimates with quarterly profit of 56 cents per share, though revenue was slightly shy of consensus.
Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) advanced 1.3 percent to $46.93 after reporting tepid sales in its latest quarter, though profit easily topped Wall Street expectations as the company scaled back promotions and moved forward with cost-cutting plans.
COMMODITIES:
Spot gold rose 0.5 percent to $1,211.98 an ounce.
Brent crude for July delivery recently fell 0.2 percent to $66.39 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July were trading at $60.54 a barrel, down 0.3 percent from yesterday's settlement.
OTHER STOCKS:
European stock markets moved slightly lower today, with investors keeping a close eye on negotiations between Greece and its lenders as well as the latest confidence data from Germany.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.2 percent to 407.19, on track to break a four-day winning streak.